RE: Virtual repeater

[Mech <mech@m3ch.net>]

At 11:55 AM -0500 3/18/09, Jeff Larson wrote:
>
>People looking for Repeater emulators are usually a fan of their
>quirky time stretch feature.  There are a lot of software loopers
>now but I don't think any of them do time stretch exactly like
>the Repeater.  Check out Ambiloop, Augustus Loop, Kenaxis, Logelloop,
>Mobius, and SooperLooper.  One of those might meet your needs.

Also, Musolomo does Time Stretch, but it's Mac-only and currently 
unsupported (but free!).  You also get some interesting interface 
options to manipulate Time/Pitch with, such as an X-Y grid and a 
Turntable for loop scratching.  Doesn't sound exactly like a 
Repeater; it's got it's own quirkiness/aliasing to the Time 
Stretching.  Only thing that used to irritate me about it is that 
they never implemented Feedback.

Also, there's no reason why you couldn't implement your own version 
of Time Stretch, using multiple VST's.  You could use almost any 
VST/AU host, or hack together your own setup in something like 
Bidule.  Here's how it works:

First, pick the looper of your choice.  It doesn't matter if it does 
Time Stretch per se, but it does need to do something like "tape 
style" Time/Pitch manipulation.  (i.e. as you lower the pitch, the 
playback slows down; same as if you put your finger on the edge of a 
reel-to-reel tape or spinning record, and caused it to slow down 
through physical friction.)

Next, find a Pitch-Shift plug-in out there.  Again, your choice.  You 
can mix and match until you find your favorite combination.

Finally, you use the Pitch-Shift plug to compensate for the 
Pitch-Shifting in the Looper, and bring the loop's pitch back to 
original.  For instance, if you use your Looper to slow the loop to 
half-speed, the pitch of the loop is going to drop to one octave 
lower.  Now run that into a Pitch-Shift plug-in set to transpose up 
one octave.  The result is that the loop is now back to its original 
pitch, but it's still playing back at half the original speed (twice 
as long, in other words).  Viola, instant Time Stretch.  If you want 
the loop to play back twice as fast, bump it up to double speed in 
the Looper, then use the Pitch-Shift plug to lower the pitch by an 
octave.  Depending upon the Looper, you should also be able to get 
in-between values, or more extreme settings (two octave shift = four 
times as fast/slow, and beyond).

I've done this with hardware (a Looperlative LP-1, into an Alesis 
Akira for the Pitch-Shifting), but there's no reason it shouldn't 
work in software too.

Of course, you ain't gonna get pristine, studio-quality Time 
Stretching from this method, but who cares?  The glitching and 
artifacting was one of the things that made the Repeater so loveable. 
So now go out and discover the sound that you yourself like the best.

        --m.

-- 
_____
"we're no longer sure where home is; homesickness is our only guide"